Neo Perennialism Philosophy

Philosophy plays an important role in education. How one views the world around him will affect the methods and the curriculum he uses to instruct the students in his classroom. For example, three learning theories Progressivism, Perennialism, and Essentialism came from very influential philosophies. The philosophies of these learning theories have strong implications on the classroom and curriculum.
Because of Progressivisms philosophy, pragmatism, has strong implications on the classroom. According to Pragmatism, man learns through life experiences, and these experiences shape the world around him. The progressives believe that since this is the case, then students should learn through hands on activities and choose what they want to study.

According to Neo-scholasticism the student must be trained to think logically, and they must have their mind developed. Consequently, Perennialism places strong emphasis on the classic works, latin, science, and math. This philosophy has an effect on the curriculum, since certain subjects, which are viewed as important today, may not be covered in a Perennial classroom. Some electives such as keyboarding will not be included in the curriculum because its importance has not been tested by time. This subject may be important today since most records are kept on computers, but keyboarding is viewed as only a temporary, cultural subject. Because of Neo-scholasticism the classroom structure would also be heavily influenced since neo-scholasticism believes a student 's will must be disciplined. Because of this the teacher is seen as the authority of the classroom and can use discipline to maintain control. If discipline however is taken to an extreme than there will be little tolerance for any perceived disciplinary problems. There are rare circumstances when the student may disrupt the class, but he has an important reason for causing the disruption. If the teacher does not use discernment he may not deal with the situation appropriately. Therefore, the teacher needs both control and love in the classroom to determine what the students need. Essentialism, just like perennialism, is

According to Realism, reality is learned by man observing the natural world. For the Essentialist teacher the student should do more than just read the textbook; the teacher could cement the concepts in the student’s mind with some projects. Particularly, this would be true in the science classroom. The law of gravity, for example, could be taught through a lecture by the teacher, and the student could then better grasp the concept by performing an experiment that the teacher has prepared. The Essentialist classroom does have some use for activities and experiments when teaching the students. However, the students would still rely on the teacher to determine what the project and the experiment would be. In contrast, Idealism believes that the reality of the universe is found in ideas. This causes the Idealist to place emphasis on the texts that have been able to withstand the test of time. For the Essentialist teacher there would be a strong emphasis on some of the classics to teach moral truths. Though an Essentialist may not recognize the inerrancy of Scripture, he may encourage his students to read the Bible stories for their moral value. The essentialist for example may encourage the student to learn the lesson of the “Good Samaritan” to teach him how to love his neighbor. While this places the Bible as just another good book to read, it does help the teacher present proper moral values.